223 O.a.l

[walshie 2,804]

I'm sure people's guns are different, but I've always had the best results loading my 223 to near the max OAL of 2.260". I made a batch yesterday and they were all about 2.256" which is near enough for me. After a bit of a tussle with the press, one of them came out as 2.200".

Is this still safe to shoot or should I pull it? (Bearing in mind I don't have a puller.)

Cheers.

[Elliott 436]

I'd probably risk it walshie providing you're not running max loads you should be OK. It's your call though.

 

Have you measured the OAL of the bullets when they touch the lands? I usually find that accuracy improves the closer I get, usually around 10 thou off touching the lands

[delswal 3,817]

 

I'm sure people's guns are different, but I've always had the best results loading my 223 to near the max OAL of 2.260". I made a batch yesterday and they were all about 2.256" which is near enough for me. After a bit of a tussle with the press, one of them came out as 2.200".

Is this still safe to shoot or should I pull it? (Bearing in mind I don't have a puller.)

Cheers.

 

If in doubt, sling it, that way your 100% safe. If it's the money your worried about I will send you £1 down

[walshie 2,804]

Haven't got a tool to measure how far off the lands I am. Accuracy is pretty good at 2.260.

 

I pulled it in the vice with a pair of mole grips as I don't want to risk my gun or beautiful face.

[Elliott 436]

If you have a pair of digital calipers you should be able to fudge something. Then again, you might not be too interested if it's shooting well already!

 

If you were curious and have a pair of digital calipers you'll be able to fudge something. In the past, I have expanded a case mouth and pushed a bullet in with my fingers, just so that it holds it in place.

 

Load it and when the bullet touches the lands it'll be pushed into the case. Eject it and measure. That'll tell you the OAL to the lands.

 

Mine shoots best at 2.290" which the 5thou off touching the lands.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Elliott

[David.evans 5,323]

Get of the cider walshie !

Beautiful face Indeed , lol have a good look in the mirrior and get back to me

[dicehorn 38]

It would help Walshie if you mentioned the make and weight of the bullet you are using - without that info anybody else's distances they are shooting off the lands are meaningless.

 

As an extreme example, a 69 gr SMK will have a totally different length than a 40 gr V Max in your .223

[walshie 2,804]

53gr vmax over N133 powder.

[dicehorn 38]

Hi. 2.260" is an acceptable COL for this size bullet - basically industry standard and will easily fit your magazine.

 

Just guessing - I assume you are using around 23.5 gr of N133 if so then your PSI will be around 52,300 against a safe max of 62,300. Your only problem using this powder is that at 23.5 gr it will be filling the case 108.5% which would mean that is will be a compressed load and theoretically the powder should be poured into the case using a powder dropper otherwise the bullet when seated will tend to crush the powder granules.

 

You can also see from the above guess that at 52K psi adding another grain of powder, PSI goes up to 60,142 which is still safely below max but your case will be 113% filled.

 

Basically this info is for you and any others loading for this calibre.

 

For safety reasons I would never recommend shooting bullets right up against the lands - it has to be borne in mind that virtually all rifles may have as many as four sweet spots - yes the first is around the 40 thou back but some sweet spots are well back (my 20 Tac is actually 222 thou back)

 

PS. Your COL at 2.200" would give a PSI (assuming 23.5gr of powder ) of around 55K so would be safe to shoot but would not necessarily go where you are aiming.

 

The 223' s I reload for are for the heavier competition VLD type bullets but I do three 223s using 50 gr Vmax and N133

 

An example of someone's 223 I worked on - this was a custom barrel

 

 

[walshie 2,804]

Thanks for the info...I think.

 

I'm not all that technically minded (obviously) but I've messed around with a few different loads and 24.0gr of N133 seems the most consistent and accurate for my particular gun. (Tikka T3 Lite).

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it is my motto.